


The War Still Left To Fight

by IShouldBeWriting, LoveChilde



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: After all's said and done, Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Gen, Major character death - Freeform, The unsung heroines of the homefront
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-08
Updated: 2017-03-08
Packaged: 2018-10-01 03:34:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10179740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IShouldBeWriting/pseuds/IShouldBeWriting, https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoveChilde/pseuds/LoveChilde
Summary: After she returned home from her time as one of the Kings and Queens of Narnia, Susan Pevensie had her own battles to fight, and she fully intended to stand victorious.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [facingthenorthwind (spacegandalf)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacegandalf/gifts).



Susan didn’t know if she’d hoped for it or dreaded it, but whatever her attitude before the event, she wasn’t surprised by it. Not really, anyway.

Afterwards, friends and relatives who’d been to the funeral commented on how calm Mrs. Susan Brown was, standing over five freshly turned graves. Her husband besides her, she stood through the whole thing holding her toddler (such a dear, well behaved thing, the ladies murmured to each other), dry eyed and silent. She thanked the people who came to share her sorrow, pale and quiet but steady as stone. That was Susan, really, they all agreed- steady as stone. Dependable, prudent, not the brightest but who needed brightness these days? Only the most vicious-minded commented that she was now sole heir to whatever her parents had left, and that it was no wonder she didn’t cry, and more wonder that she didn’t sing with joy. As far as Susan was concerned, this was not how she’d wanted to pay off the remaining payments for the house, or for young William’s tuition. She would much rather have had her parents and siblings back, thank you very much.

But the train had taken them from her, along with some fifty other victims, and they would not be coming back. Standing over the graves, Susan had known it wasn’t a matter of if, but of when, she would get a visit.

And so, when the oversized Mouse appeared to her in a dream the following night, she was not at all surprised.

In truth, she thought he’d be angrier. She’d abandoned them, after all; left Narnia and the endless fighting behind, denied it had ever been, when asked, and stuck to that position so fiercely that the others had given up trying. That was how she’d wanted it to be, and Susan was quite good at getting her way without appearing to fight for it.

What choice had she had, when all was said and done? They had been Kings and Queens of Narnia, and when they returned, they were back to being too-young-to-matter in the middle of a war. Lucy had been young enough and cute enough to get away with daydreaming and being a tomboy, and Peter and Edmund could play around with sticks as pretend swords all they wanted, being boys, but Susan had no such options. It was finish school, get a job, help mother support the family so Peter could finish his schooling. It had been even worse after their second visit. Returning had been almost unbearable, and she threw herself into normal, modern life, hoping to forget she had ever been a Queen of Narnia. She was queen of nothing now.

Or rather, she thought as she stood in her dream before the talking Mouse, she had been queen of nothing _then._ Much had changed, since.

The Mouse bowed deeply. “Queen Susan the Radiant, I am charged with calling you back to Narnia. Night falls on the blessed Land, the final War is upon us. Come with me, and join your royal siblings in glory with Aslan.”

“They live, then, in Narnia?” She asked, surprised at how steady her voice was, and how regal. She had not forgotten how to be Queen, it seemed. The Mouse nodded and bowed again, his snout touching the floor.

“They do, my Queen. When the final battle is over, they will live in Aslan’s Land. But come with my, stand with us in this war, and you will be with them.”

She thought about it, for a moment. Living in eternal peace and glory in Aslan’s mythical Land, with her brothers and sister and the heroes of Narnia. What would it look like to the world? Poor Susan Brown, found cold in her bed in the morning, dead of heartbreak? Surely not.

She thought also of a tousle-headed toddler, of her husband with his gentle, steady hands, of the pokey little apartment that is their little kingdom. She thought about her daily struggles, to put food on the table, to clean and mend and get a small child washed and dressed even when he screams and struggles. Of working in a drab office and finding small joys even there. Of friends, and love, and tiny, every-day triumphs. She thought of the new life growing in her, which she hadn’t told her husband about yet. Such was her kingdom on Earth, and no Land of Aslan could equal the sound of ‘Mommy, I love you’ and small sticky kisses scented with baby powder.

“I will not come with you.” She said simply. The Mouse seemed stunned.

“But- My Queen- The war...If you do not come with me, you will never find your way there. You will be locked out, forever separated from your family, from Aslan, from Narnia!”

“I have been separate from all of them for many years now.” There was a touch of regret in her voice, but only a touch. The accident had been but the final step in a long journey of separation. “I wish them joy in Aslan’s Land, but I’ll keep my joy here.”

“You will not help us in the coming battle?” The Mouse seemed accusing now, but Susan stood firm. She had been Queen of Narnia, but in her own little realm she was queen still, and did not need to share her throne.

“I have my own wars to fight, Sir Mouse. Give my regards to my siblings, and to Aslan. I will remain.”

The Mouse shook his head once, bowed low again, and disappeared. Susan, still in her dream, started planning her shopping list and chores for the next day.

She had battles of her own to fight, and she fully intended to stand victorious. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Fic by LoveChilde, art by IShouldBeWriting. Happy Purim from us both!


End file.
